The Apple Mac mini "Core i5" 3.0 (Late 2018/Space Gray) features a 14 nm "Coffee Lake" 3.0 GHz Intel "Core i5" (8500B) processor with six independent processor "cores" on a single chip, a 9 MB shared level 3 cache, 8 GB of user upgradable 2666 MHz DDR4 PC4-21300 SDRAM, 256 GB or 512 GB of onboard PCIe-based SSD storage (512 GB starting on March 18, 2020), and an "integrated" Intel UHD Graphics 630 graphics processor that shares system memory.

Connectivity includes four Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C connector) ports, two USB 3.1 ports, an HDMI 2.0 port, Gigabit Ethernet (configurable to NbaseT/10 Gigabit Ethernet at the time of system purchase), 802.11ac Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n compatible), Bluetooth 5.0, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Compared to its ancient predecessors this model looks similar apart from its dark "Space Gray" color, but it has a vastly more advanced processor and system architecture in addition to more modern connectivity. It also has upgradable RAM, but not upgradable storage.